Basically what happens is, the smoke is uncombusted carbon oder semi-combusted carbon (CO), because the wax is mostly carbon and it vaporizes faster than it can burn in the air. So when you light the white smoke, which is very finely divided Carbon in air, it combusts and turns to carbon dioxide, which is colorless (which is why the smoke seems to disappear). The flame itself is just gas being ionized from the heat of the carbon-oxide reaction, but the smoke burns so quickly back down to the candle, that the air around doesn't get heated enough to be ionized, which is why you don't see a flame jumping down from the match to the candle, but just the candle flame reigniting.Interesting sidefact for cars: If you see a car accellerating and a black cloud is coming from the exhaust, it means that the engine doesn't get enough air to properly burn the fuel. It's often a sign for the engine either being too cold or badly adjusted (which can happen during a non-professional tuning)